Comparing Love and Acceptance in I Stand Here Ironing and Everyday Use :: comparison compare contrast essays

Love and Acceptance in I Stand Here Ironing and Everyday Use Tillie Olsens I Stand Here Ironing, and Alice Walkers Everyday Use, some(prenominal) address the issue of a frets guilt over how her children turn out. two fusss blamed themselves for their daughters problems. While I Stand Here Ironing is obviously close the mousy daughter, in Everyday Use this is camouflaged by the fact most of the action and dialog involves the fetch and older sister Dee. Neither does the mother in Everyday Use say outright that she feels guilty, but we catch a glimpse of it when Dee is trying very hard to claim the handmade quilts. The mother says she did something she had never done before, hugged Maggie to me, then took the quilts from Dee and gave them to Maggie. In I Stand Here Ironing the mother tells us she feels guilty for the way her daughter Emily is, for the things she (the mother) did and did not do. The mothers populate even tells her she should smile at Emily more when you look at h er. Again towards the end of the story Emilys mother admits my wisdom came too late. The mothers unknowingly gave Emily and Maggie second best. Both mothers compare their two daughters to each other. In Everyday Use the mother tells us that Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She Fahning -2-speaks of the fire that burned and pock Maggie. She tells us how Maggie is not bright, how she shuffles when she walks. Comparing her with Dee whose feet vwere always neat-looking, as if God himself had shaped them. We also learn of Dees style and the way she awes the other girls at school with it. The mother in I Stand Here Ironing speaks of Susan, quick and articulate and assured, everything in appearance and manner Emily was not. Emily thin and dark and foreign-looking at a clock when every little girl was supposed to look or thought she should look a chubby blonde replica of Shirley Temple. Like Dee, Emily had a animal(prenominal) limitation also. Hers was asth ma. Both Emily and Maggie show resentment towards their sisters. The sisters who God rewarded with good looks and poise. Emilys mother points out the poisonous feeling between the sisters, feelings she contributed to by her inability to balance the hurts and needs of the two.